A Mindful Guide To Sustainable Shopping
“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”
There's no question the conveniences of today’s modern living have pulled us away from the sustainability practices our great-grandparents lived by. The problems we now face are vast and complex, but they come down to this: we are 6.8 billion living together on one planet. It’s clear that what we put on our plates has a big impact on the environment. In fact, food is responsible for roughly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
A person's food footprint (foodprint) is all the emissions that result from the production, transportation and storage of the food supplied to meet their consumption needs. Yes, it will take more than a few small personal changes to make our planet healthy, but if we can all make just one change, it’s a step in the right direction.
If you want to be mindful of how your food is grown, and how it affects the environment, the people, and the economy, you’ve landed in the right place. Here are eight ways you can shrink your foodprint — and improve your health at the same time:
Shop your farmer’s market. Even if you walk or bike to the grocery store, if you come home with bananas from Ecuador, grapes from Chile, tomatoes from Holland, cheese from France, and artichokes from California, you have guzzled some serious gas. Food in U.S. supermarkets travel an average of 1,500 miles to get to your plate. Transporting 5 calories worth of strawberries from California to New York costs 425 calories of fossil fuel. It takes the earth 18 months to replenish the amount of resources we use each year, and therefore, we’d need 1.5 earths to be sustainable at our current rate of consumption. So turn a casual stroll through the farmer’s market into a ritual. Local food is fresher, healthier and tastes better, because it spends less time in transit from farm to plate. Dollars spent at local farms stay in your local economy and encourage diversification of local agriculture. Find a list of your local Farmer's Markets here.
Join a CSA. Consider this your local farm's version of "Instacart" or online grocery shopping if you can't make it to the farmer's market each week. 'CSA' stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which is simply paying your local farmer upfront and receiving a weekly delivery of their crops throughout the harvest season. This allows your family to eat seasonally which serves up the freshest food packed with the highest amount of nutrients you can get! Click here to find a CSA near you.
Grow your own food. If you haven't heard Rob Finley's TED Talk, he claims "Growing your own food is like printing your own money." No garden? No problem! Planting on your deck or even indoor windowsill will work. Green thumb or not, herbs—especially basil, cilantro, parsley, chives, and rosemary—will grow well almost anywhere. Start small with some of your favorite herbs and see what regenerates!
Go meatless on Mondays. If you are aware of the benefits of cutting out meat once a week in favor of three plant-based meals on Monday, you know that it doesn’t just improve your health – it does the environment a lot of favors as well. Global livestock production creates more greenhouse gas than the entire transportation sector. (Read that again.) Eating more plant-based foods, while reducing meat consumption, can be a viable, long term solution to these issues. And choosing to go meatless on Monday – or any day of the week – is the first step in making a positive change. Plus, it’s the perfect way to eat more plants and try new recipes that put fruits, vegetables, and plant-based protein in the spotlight. Load up on plants rich in proteins like quinoa, hemp, soy, nuts, seeds, legumes and greens.
Choose sustainable fish. Wild salmon, sardines, mussels, rainbow trout and Atlantic mackerel are just a few options that are low in mercury, high in omega-3’s, and friendly to our oceans. Click here to find more sustainable seafood.
Go organic when possible. Organic farming rebuilds soil health and stops harmful chemicals from getting into our water supplies. It also creates greater biodiversity. And if that doesn’t get you fired up to make the switch, consider how much more nutrition you bank from these true gems of mother nature. Some studies show that organic produce boasts upwards of 300x the vitamin and mineral content compared to their non-organic counterparts. And according to the Environmental Working Group, eating an organic diet can reduce your pesticide level by a staggering 90%. We use organic produce because it’s safer, less toxic and closer to as Mother Nature intended.
Waste less. About 40% of all food produced in the U.S. is never eaten. 400 pounds of food is wasted per person, per year. The average American family wastes $2,200 in food per year. When you pair this with the vast resources that are used to to produce this food — like soil, water, fossil fuels, crop inputs — you can start to see just how gluttonous we are when it comes to our food. In fact, reducing food waste by just 15% could feed more than 25 million people per year.
Compost your scraps. Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. Food scraps have the correct ratio of nutrients that plants need to grow. By composting, we put nutrients back into the soil instead of wasting them. Composting benefits the air, water, and soil. Best of all, it closes the Farm-to-Table-to-Farm nutrient loop.
And know this: it's okay to start small. In fact, simple is usually best. If one of these jumps out to you and makes you feel inspired, start there and see where it takes you. The good news is that eating healthfully and sustainably can go hand-in-hand.
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